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MEMOIRS OF 

JUDGE SAMUEL PRExNTISS, 

OF MONTPELIEIl, VT., 

AND UIS WIFE, 

LUCRETIA (HOUGHTON) PRENTISS.* 



Hon. Samuel'' Prentiss, judge, son of Dr. Samuel and Liicretia 
(Holmes), b March 31, 1782, in the okl house in Slonington, Ct.f 
Brouglit to Northfield, Mass., bj' his futher in 1786, he spent the 
earl\- years of his life there, and pursued a course of classical studies 
under the care of the Rev. Samuel C. Allen. There, at the age of 
19, he began to read law with Solomon Vose, Esq.. but after- 
wards went into the office of John W. Blake, Esq., at Braltleboro', 
Vt., where he continued his lenal studies, and in 1802 was ad- 
mitted to the bar. He went to Montpelier, Vt., in May, 1803, and 
commenced the practice of the law, and there he made his home for 
the rest of his life. He m. Lucretia, eldest daughter of Pklward 
Houuhton, Esq., at Northfield, Mass., Oct. 3, 1804. In 1822 he was 
appointed one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Vermont, but 
declined to accept tlie office. He was elected a representative of Mont- 
pelier in the State Legislature for the years 1824 and 1825. While 
a member of the Legislature, he originated and sustained the very 
important act for the reorganization of the judiciary system of the 
State. In 1825 he was appointed first associate judge of the Supreme 
Court, and continued in that office till 1829, when he was appointed 
chief-justice of the State. In 1830, while chief-justice, he was elected 
to the Senate of the United States for six years, and in 183fi w:is 
again elected for a like term of six years. In 1832 he received the 
degree of LL. D. from Dartmouth College. On the eighth da}' of 
April, 1842, he was nominated judge of the United States Court for 
the District of Vermont. The Senate, without the usual reference, 
forthwith, and bj- a unanimous vote, confirmed the nomination. This 
office he held till his death, on Jan. 15, 1857. 

Judge Thompson, in his " History of Montpelier," in speaking of 
Judge Prentiss's early legal studies, sa3's, "But few, perhaps, are 
aware liow close and extensive had been his study of all the great 
masters of English literature, how careful the cultivation of his taste, 
and how much his proficiency in the formation of that style, which 
subsequently so peculiarly stamped all his mental efforts, whether of 

* From the second edition of the Prentice-ss Family Genealogy, p. 385 
(except the t note on pp. 8 to 14 omitted there for want of room). 
t See the view of it in first edition. 



2 

writing or speaking, with unvarying strength and neatness of expres- 
sion. "We recollect once having met wilh a sei ies of litei'ary miscel- 
lany, written l>y him, piohahly when he was a law studetit, published 
first in a newspaper in numbers, and afterwards republished in pam- 
phlet form, which were all alike marked hy neatness of style and 
beauty of sentiment, and which, though only intended, doubtless, for 
mere off-hand sketches, would have favorably' compared with our best 
magazine literature." 

" In person Judge Prentiss was nearly' six feet hijih, well formed, 
with an unusually exi)anfeive forehead, shapel}' featuies, and a clear 
and pleasant countenance, all made the more imposing and agreeable 
b}' the affable and court!}' bearing of the old-school jienlleman. In 
his domestic S3'stem he was a strict economist, but ever gave liberally 
for religious and benevolent objects." 

At a meeting of the Vermont Historical Society, held in October, 
1880, Hon. E. J. Phelps was invited to deliver an "address on the 
life and public services of the Hon. Samuel Prentiss." Mr. Phelps 
had known Judge Prentiss for many years. His father. Judge Phelps, 
and Judge Prentiss had been intimate friends. Both had been 
judges of the Supreme Court, anfl together the}- had represented 
Vermont in the Senate of the United States. We copy portions of 
Mr. Phelps's adtlress as delivered before the Vermont Historical 
Sociel}', Oct. 26, 1882, and printed by oriler of the Legislature of the 
State at their session for 1882 : — 

" The events of Judge Prentiss's life can be rapidly told. They 
are few and simple. He was born in Connecticut, in 1782, of a 
good old stock, who traced back their lineage to an excellent family 
in England. His great-grandfather fought lor the king in the old 
French war, and his grandfather fought against the king, a colonel in 
the Pevolutionary war.* He came to Vermont, which was the El 
Dorado of the best young blood of Connecticut in those times, and 
was admitted to the bar in 1802, before he was 21 jquvs of age. 
He piactised law in Monipelier until 1825, when he was made a 
judge of the Supreme Court. In 1829 he became chief-justice. In 
1830 he was elected to the United States Senate, and again in 1836. 
In 1841 he was api)ointed judge of the United States District Court 
for Vermont, and held that office until he died in 1857, at the age of 
75, leaving twelve children and a very moderate estate. That 
is the whole sttny. i'hiity-two j-ears' continuous pultlic seivice; 
yet the events of his life are substantially comprisid in these few 
words. But the best lives are not made up of events ; they are made 
up of qualities and of attainments. And simple as are the incidents 

* His father, Dr. Samuel Prentiss, of Northfleld, Mass., was a .surgeon who 
served wilh distinction in the Revolutionary war. 



3 

that are now to be gathered of that life, it was bej'ond question one 
of the best and purest of the mail}- good lives Vermont has been 
blessed \\\i\\. 

" I ma}- briefly consider (for I can touch but briefly upon anything 
to-niglit) his Hie in these four successive epochs, as a lawyer at the 
Vermont bar, as a judge and chief-justice of the Supreme Court of his 
State, as a senator of the United States, and as a judge of the federal 
court of this district. 

" He practised law, I have said, for twent3--three years. The 
phrase is one ver}' commonly employed, and has \evy different 
meanings. The small pettifogger practises law, to the infinite mis- 
chief of the Cfunmunit}' he lives in. And there is another class, to 
whom that terra of rei)roach cannot propirlv be applied, but who 
content themselves with finding in the practice of the law a sort of 
genteel trnde, out of which some sort of a livelihood is to be extracted 
witliout much labor ; who never begin to have a conception of the 
nohilit}' or the scope of a profession, that has been well declared to 
be ' as honorable as justice, and as ancient as the forms of law ' ; who 
never study it as a science, or in any large waj', but content them- 
selvi's with such little miscellaneous acquirements as may answer the 
purposes of the small controversies of their locality. And therefore it 
is, that good men outside of the profession are sometimes puzzled to 
understand how it should be exposed to the sharp and hitter criticism 
often applied to it, and at the same time should be the subject of the 
loft}'^ eulog}' heard in the best quarters in regard to it. It is because 
there are lawyers and lawyers ; law^'ers small and great, useful and 
mischievous. There are those who belong to the trade, and there are 
tiiose who belong to the profession. 

" Judge Prentiss's life as a lawyer was of course before m}' time. 
My personal acquaintance with him began when he was in the Senate 
of the United States. AYhat I know of his previous career I have 
gathered from those who did know him, who are older than I, from 
the records he has left behin<1 him, and from what I infer, from my 
subsequent acquaintance, must have been his character and qualities, 
when he was a younger man. 

" In the first place, although a countr}' lawyer in the then little vil- 
lage of Montpelier, and in the Guiall, rural, isolated State of Vermont, 
he proceeded to acquaint nimself, by the most careful and juilicious 
and far reaching stud}-, with the whole range of the common law and 
all its kindred topics. He did not terminate his labors with those 
subjects that were likely to turn up for discussion in the Washington 
County Court. He acquainted himself, 1 re{)eat, with the whole 
range and fabric of the common law, from its earliest foundations 



and from the dawnings of its first fundamental principles. He 
learned the law as tlio perfLU'tion of reason and tlie science of justice. 
And then he l)rought to bear upon the practice of it the elevation of 
character and purity of motive tliat were born to him, and whicli he 
displaj-ed in ever}- relation of life. He felt and acted upon tlie con- 
viction that the law^-er as well as the judge is one of the ministers of 
justice ; tliat he as well as the ju Ige is a sworn officer of the court ; 
that the administration of justice is his business, and not its perver- 
sion ; and that he is charged with his share of its duty, its responsi- 
bility, and its repute. No mean cause, no disreputable client, no 
fraud to be vindicated, no wrong to be achieved, no right to be 
defeated, no assassin to be turned loose upon the community, ever 
engaged the services of Judge Premiss. Tliough the legal reports of 
the State were far more meagre at that period than thev are now, 
the}' are sufficient to indicate to those wlio care to resort to them, the 
manner of business he was engaged in. And the consequence was, 
that althouoh at that day Vermont was full of able law3-ers, and 
although the limited facilities for transportation were such as to 
confine the bar of the State principally to the business of their own 
counties. Judge Prentiss, more than any other man in Veimont, was 
called upon to go lo various parts of the State; I might almost say 
to all parts of tlie State in which any considerable courts were then 
held, and always in important cases. Such a lawyer as he was con- 
tributes to the law and the justice of his country more than most 
people are aware of. He is helping all the time, not only the partic- 
ular business in band, — the interests with which he is charged, — but 
he is helping the court ; he is helping to educate and maintain the 
court. Wise and able judges feel that sensibly. The argument that 
may fail of its application to-day is seed sown upon good ground. 
The effect of it comes afterward, and bears fruit in the general law of 
the land. 

"•' Such was the course of Judge Prentiss at the bar. And it is not 
surprising that in the year 1822 a seat upon the bench of the 
Supreme Court was offered to him and pressed u[)on his acceptance. 
Probablj' at that time there were few men in the State of Vermont 
better qualified to (ill it. He alone of all the bar, with a characteristic 
modesty that was throughout his life beyond any other exhibition of 
that quality I ever knew, declined it. He distrusted the ability that 
nobody else distrusted. But three 3'ears afterwards, when the office 
was again pressed upon him, with no little reluctance he took his 
seat upon the bench. It is very noticeable in the reports how con- 
siderable a time elapsed before he could bring himself to be the organ 
of the court in pronouncing its opinions. He cast that duty upon his 



senior brethren. Ilis associates upon the bench were Chief- Justice 
Skinner, Titus Ilutcliinson, and Bates Turner, and afterwards Cliarles 
K. AYilliauis and Steplien Royce, names among the most honoralile in 
our judicial histor3\ But in due time he began to write and deliver 
opinions, and some of them remain, fortunately for his reputation. 
Only a part of them, because, as I have said, the reports were more 
meagre then than now. They speak f(jr themselves. It is true, they 
deal largely with questions that have been now so long settled that 
we have little occasion to go back to read upon the subjects. But 
the lawyer who is desirous of seeing vvh:>t manner of man he was, and 
what sort of a court he belonged to, and who will t;ike the trouble to 
peruse these opinions, will discover that they are distinguished, in the 
first place, by the most complete knowledge of the science of the law. 
And he will find, in the next place, that their conclusions are arrived 
at by logical deductions from fundamental principles, in a manner 
that to every capacity becomes perfectly luminous and decisive. And 
finally, that in every instance, the case the court is concerned with 
had been the subject of the most careful, thoughtful consideration, 
until nothing that bore upon the conclusion was overlooked, foigotten, 
or misunderstood. 

" Some people are coming to think in these days that a judge can be 
manufactured out of almost anj' sort of material. And it Is true 
enough that almost any man can sit upon the bench, can hear causes, 
and after some fashion can decide them ; and the world will go along; 
there will be no earthquake ; there will be no interruption of human 
aflfairs ; he will fill the office. But by and by it vvill come to be 
discovered that the law of the land, which apparently has lost nothing 
of its learning, has wonderfully lost its justice ; that conclusions *hat 
by learned reasons and abstruse proces-^es have been reach( i are 
not consonant with justice, and establish rules that cannot be lived 
under. As the common people say, they may be law, but they are 
not right. There is philosophical and sufficient reason fur this result: 
it is inevitable. Justice under the common law cannot be adminis- 
tered in the long run by an incapable man. And he is an ii;capable 
man for that purpose who is not a mister of the principles of the 
law, by a knowledge sj'stematic, comprehensive, and complete. 
Because those principles are the principles of justice. Thej' are 
designed for justice. The law has no other reason, no other purpose. 
The judge who draws his conclusions from this source will keep 
within the limits of justice. The judge who is groping in the dark, 
and depending upon lanterns to find his wav, who is swayed and 
swerved by the winds, the fancies, and the follies of the day, and by 
tl»e fictitious or undiscrirainating learning that Huds its wa}- into mul- 



tiplicd lawbooks, will reach conclusions which laymen perhaps cannot 
answer, but which mankind cannot tolerate. Such courts lose public 
confidence, and business forsakes tliem. It is an iuvaiiable truth, 
tliat the more thorough the legal acquirements of the judge, the 
nearer his decisions approach to ultimate justice. 

" I believe I am correct in saying that none of the decisions in which 
Judge Prenti-ss participated have ever since been departed from. I 
think ouriSuprerae Couit has not found it necessary in the course of 
subsequent experience (and it is human experience that tries the 
soundness of legal conclusions) to overrule or materially to modify 
them. 

" In 1830, as I have remarked. Judge Prentiss was elected to the 
United States Senate; we may well imagine, upon no solicitation of 
his own ; and went to Washington to take his seat. And there, as I 
have also remarked, I became personally acquainted with him. 

" And you will pardon me if I digress to say a word about that body, 
as it existed when I saw it for the first time. To comprehend what 
Prentiss was, it is necessarj' to comprehend what were his surround- 
ings, and who were his associates, I venture to sa}' that this world, 
so far as we have any account of it, has never seen assembled a legis- 
lative bod}', which, on the whole, and taking all things into account, 
could conijiare with the United States Senate at that period of our 
hisior}'. Not the Roman Senate, in its most august days; not the 
Parliament of Ei gland, when Burke and Pitt and Sheridan made its 
eloquence immortal ; not that rever 'd body of men who assembled 
together to create our Constitution. In the first place, it was made 
up by the selection of undoubtedly the very best men in every State 
in the Union, who could be furnished out of the political parly which 
had the ascendancy in the State for the time being. The consequence 
was, that they were, almost without exception, men of the largest 
and most distinguished ability; and only the presence of the great 
leaders I shall refer to presently' prevented almost any member of 
that bod}' from assuming a position of acknowledged leadership. 
Though party conflicts at. times ran high, their contentions were 
based, upon both sides, upon the Constitution, and upon the broadest 
and most statesmanlike views. Men might well differ, as they differed, 
about the right and wrong of the questions and issues of the day. 
Much was to he said upon both sides. But one thing was to be said 
on all sides ; and that was that no man need be ashamed of being 
upon either si'ie, because the groundwork of all was broad and 
statesmanlike and defensible. 

"There was, besides, a dignity, a courtesy, an elegance of deport- 
ment pervading the deliberations of that assembly that could not fail 



to impress everybody who had the advantage of coming into fits 
presence. No coarse personalities, no vulgarity of language or con- 
duct, no sm;\ll parliamentary trick or sul)terfuge was ever tolerated. 
And rarely have been biought together a body of men of such uni- 
formly striking and distinguished personal i)resence. 

" Time does not allow me even to name more than two or three of 
its members. I might cite abnost the whole roll of the Senate in 
illustration of what I have said. Their names remain upon record as 
part of our history. It was once said that to have known a certain 
beautiful woman was a hberal education. I covild say with far less 
exaggeration, th:it for an American citizen, and especially a )'<<ung 
American eitiz-n, to have known and seen the United States Senate 
of that day was a liberal education in what it most behooves an 
American citizen to know. He would have learned there, in such 
manner as never to forget, the difference between the gentleman and 
the ciiailatan, between the politician and the statesman, between the 
leader of men, who gui les and saves his nation, and the demagogue 
who traffics in its misfortunes and fattens upon its plunder. 

'•Into that stately assembly walked, in 1830, one of the most 
modest, reticent, quiet gentlemen that ever lived ; with no self-assei- 
tion, seeking no leadership, making few speeches, taking nothing at 
all upon himself, the representative of one of the smallest and most 
rural States of the Union, with no ambition to gratify, no purposes of 
his own to serve. But he came theie, not to be inquired of l)y his 
distinguished associates, '* Friend, how camest thou in hither?" He 
came to lake his place from the first, imd t) retain it to the last, as 
their acknowledged peer. No man in that Senate was more tiior- 
oughly respec'ed and esteemed. No man was more listened to, when 
on comparatively rare occasions he thought proper to address them. 
No man's opinion had more weight ; no maii's intimacy was more 
courted by the great men I have alluded to, than that of Samuel 
Pientiss. His position there, and his standing in the Senate, were 
such that he not onlv represented, but honored his State. It was a 
remarkable exhiljition of the influence of high character, and of quiet 
intellectiial force, lie came to be regarded by many as the best 
jurist in the Senate, yet no jurist said so little on tlie sulyect. 
Although Judge Story was then sitting, in the height of his fame, on 
the bench of ihe Supreme Court, Chancellor Kent d( dared th:it he 
regarded Judge Prentiss as the first jurist in New England. And 
what was a great deal better than that, he was a man of an independ- 
ence of charr.cler that nothing could swerve. One might suppose 
from what I have said of his modesty and gentleness, his considera- 
tion for others and his distrust of himself, that he would be a man 



8 

who could be easil}' swayed and influenced. He was like the oak- 
tree, its branches bending in the breeze, the trunk solid and immova- 
ble. AV^lien the bankrupt law was passed in 1S40, though it was stren- 
uously urged by tiie Whig party, to which Judge Pientiss belonged, 
he opposed it. lie stood out against the almost universal public 
demand ; and he made a speech against it, which was said on all 
hands to be tlie ablest speech of the whole debate.* He could stand 
alone well enough when there was anything vvorlh standing out about. 
The subsequent history of that tiankrnpt law demonstrated that Judge 
Prentiss was right. It was an ill-advised, hasty piece of legislation, 
wliich Congress was glad afterwards to abiindon and repeal. 

" I cannot dwell upon incidents of his senaturi;d career.! I cannot 
rehearse or repeat anything fi-otn h.s speeches. I must pass siiperfi- 

* Walton says in a note to his History of the Governor and Council, which 
he prepared and printed by order of tlie Leiiis'ature, that an old citizen of 
Vermont, who has been honored by high offices, has religiously preserved a 
copy of that speech and reads it once annually. 

t As a senator Judge Prentiss won an enviable and enduring reputation in 
a body embracing almost all the intellectual iriauts in tliat highest period of 
American statesmau>tiip. Among tlie beneticent measures of which he was 
the originator and successful advocate, was the law, still in force, for the 
suppression of duelling in the District of Colun)bia. His speeches in sup- 
port of that measure were unusually efiective, and have taken rank 
among the best specimens of senatorial ratiocination and eloquence. — Judge 
Th(,mpson's History of Mon/pelier, p. 280. 

Judge Prentiss's course in the Senate was uniformly self-consistent, wise, 
and conciliatory. Holding to the views of the more moderate men at the 
North with regard to our Southern instiluiions, and once under the neces- 
sity of defend/iig his own State and its re-oUitions from the aspersions of 
members from the Soutli, he yet accomplished his duty in such a way as to 
win the esteem and confidence of his opi)onents, sustained the honor of his 
constituency, and preserved his own simplicity and integrity. Though co;n- 
pelUd to enter into discussion upon the exciting topics of the day, and to 
advocate the power and the constitutional right of Congress to abolish the 
slave trad and slavery in the District of Columbia, and the right of petition, 
and the corresponding obligations to receive jictitions from the people, and to 
resist, to the utmost of his strength, the projects for the annexation of Texas, 
he yet, conducted himself in so courteous, diuniiled, ana lofty a manner as in- 
variably to conciliate the extremes from both sections of the country, to 
command the attention and r« spect and admiration of all who listened to 
his speeclies, to vindicate the propriety and rectitude of his own course, and 
sust.iin his reputation for wisdom and sagacity. 

While a member of the Senate he was appointed on several of the standing 
committees, such as the committee, on the judiciary, the committee on pub- 
lic lands, and the committee on patents and the Patent Office. 

As a member of the committee on public lauds, he advocated the bill for 
tlie distribution of the proceeds arising from the sale of the public domain 



9 

cially over much that might be dwelt on. The flying hour admonishes 
me that I must hasten on. One single passage let me quote from 
memory — and I can repeat substantially his language — in a speech 
made in the United States Senate in 1842, when in his own quiet and 
modest way he expressed what was the guiding principle of his pub- 

among the several States. He considered that the compacts of cession under 
the confederation gntirauteed to the particular States their proportionate share 
in the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, and that the substituiion of the 
present Constitution and government in the place of the confederation did 
not impair the right of the States to the fund. He regarded the provisions 
of the Constitution as confirming all the antecedent rights springing out of 
the compacts of ce^^sion, and argued that the public territory was a binding 
trust held by the government of the United States for the benefit of the par- 
ticular States, "according to their respective proportions in the general 
charge and expenditure." Hence he opposed the project for donating the 
public land-i to the States in which Ihey were located, and urged the distril)u- 
tion of their proceeds as the only measure that was just and harmonious with 
the Constitution. His speeches on this subject were marked by great clear- 
ness and force of argument, and discovered a power of stating and elucidat- 
ing difficult propositions that was not surpassed by any one in ihe Senate. 

As a member of the committee on the judiciary, to whom the subject was 
referred, he reported a bill directing a new edition of the laws of the United 
States to be compiled and printed, and accompanied the bill with a written 
report explaining at length its provisions, objects, and advantages. The bill 
was passed by the Senate, but no action was had upon it in the House. The 
utility of such a compilation of the laws has since become so apparent, that 
the executive, if our recollection does not fiiil us, has recently thought fit to 
call the attention of Congress to it. 

In the session of 1834 and 1835, as well as in that of 1833 and 1834, he was 
one of the select committee, of which Mr. Webster was chairman, to whom 
was referred the bill for the satisfaction of claims due American citizens for 
spoliations committed on their commerce prior to Sept 30, 1800. The bill 
was repotted upon favorably by the committee, and, after long debate, was 
passed by the Senate. Mr. Prentiss advocated the bill in a speech, present- 
inir, in a plain and condensed view, the whole merits of the matter, and demon- 
straiing very fully and clearly the e(iuity and justice of the claims, and the 
obligation of the government to pay them. He argued, that the claims of the 
United States for indemnity from France for spoliations on our commerce 
were just, were so admitted by France, and were surrendered to that gov- 
ernment as an equivah nt for the correspondent release of the United States 
from certain important national obligations; and that, therefore, the govern- 
ment of the United States, having appropriated an indemnity due on account 
of spoliations committed on private property, as an offset to claims on the 
part of France, growing out of national obligations imposed upon the 
United States by treaties, was bound, according to the fundamental law of 
the land as well as by the principles of national justice, to make compensa- 
tion to the injured individuals. Such vs'as the substance of his argument, 
and on such a basis he advocated the measure as necessary to preserve invio- 
late the national honor and rectitude. 



10 

lie and pnlitical life. 'I would not be understood,' he saj's, 'as 
undervaluing popularity bee mse T disc'aini it as a i ule of conduct. 
I am quite too hunit)le and unpreten<ting an individual to count greatlj' 
upon it, or to seek for or di sire an}' which does not ari;e from the 
pursuit of light ends by riiht means. Whatever popularit}' that may 

The nice sense of justice and honor wliich characterize Mr. Prentiss was 
exhibited on another subject, soniewliat similar in its n:iture. Seeing how 
much of tlie time of Congress was occupied iu legislating upon private 
claims, the gn-at delays and expense lo which tlie clainiauts were subjected, 
and tlie injustice often done them, and iu many iu>tances, the government, l)y 
such legislation, Mr. Prentiss, in January, 1837, in order to correct tlie evil, 
obtained leave to bring in a bill to establish a Board of Commissioners to 
hear and examine claims against the United States. This bill he iniroduced 
to the Senate at every subsequent session, so long as he remained in that 
body. It was pass' d by the Senate at three fiiflTerent sessions; but at neither 
was there any flual action had upon it iu the House of Representatives.* 

Mr. Prentiss is the author of the existing Act of Congress against duelling 
iu the District of Columbia. He drew up, introduced, and carried the bill 
through the Senate. The time chosen for its introduction, and the manner 
iu which it was urged upon the attention of the Senate and of the country, 
were both equally appropriate and forcible. It was .«<oon alter the duel 
between Hou. William J. Graves, of Kentucky, and Hon. Jonatlian Cilley, of 
New Hampshire, both members of the House of iiepresentatives. No one 
who lieard Mr. Prentiss ou this occasion but had their respect raised to 
admiration for his strength of principle, perfection of argument, and calm 
but finished and subduing eloquence. On this bid he made three speeches: 
the first, upon introducing it; the second, in reply to objections; and the 
third, on the general merits of the bill. When we consider the event which 
was the immediate occasion of the bill, and the emotions which it caused 
throughout the circles at Washington and through the entire country, we 
may estimate to some extent the efiect which was produced when Mr. Pren- 
tiss, evidently infiuenced by no mere impulse of overwrought sensibility, but 
by permanent and enduring principles that were only called into action by 
the occasion, rose in his place and proposed a bill designed to suppress duel- 
ling l)y attachmg to it an infamous penalty; and concluded his remarks, l)y 
calling upon "senators, grave and considerate senators, lieads of families, 
fathers of the land, to interpose their authority and influence to stay a prac- 
tice unsuited to an enlightened age, and revolting to the moral and religious 
feelings of the country ; and invoked them, by their regard for those on whoui 
the hopes of the country rest, by their regard to eternal and immutable prin- 
ciples of moral rectitude, by every consideration of justice and humanit\% by 
the duty they owed to God and their country, to give aid and support to a 
measure, demandeii by the moral sense of the nation, essential to personal 
security, and to the preservation of law, lil)erty, and social oider." 

It was, however, in the speech on the general merits of the l)ill that he 
evinced most fully both his intellectual power and the purity and elevation of 

* The game object lias since been accomplislieil l)y llio passage of a bill by Congress establishing 
the present Court of Claims. 



n 

bring will be grateful to me as to any one. But I neither covet nor 
am ambitious of an}' other.' Tie expressed in that mo'lest way the 
same thought Lord Mansfield expressed when he said, ' I am not 
insensilde to popularity ; but I desire the popularity that follows, not 
that wliich is run after.' 

his principles His peroration was remarkably impressive and effective both 
in its style and idea; nor need we ever despair of the safety and glory of our 
Kepnl)lic nnd its institutions, so long as such men shall stand in our public 
councils, and aftirm that the high principles of jnstice must never yield to the 
factious demands, however clamorous or imi>ortunate, of party policy or 
political ex|)ediency. The conclusion of that speech we cannot forbear to 
give, confident that it neoeds no other apology for its insertion here than its 
intrinsic truth and beauty, than the high moral lessons it conveys. And we 
can almost see his tall person animated, and his eye kindling under the 
vigor and almost prophetic nature of his own sentiments, and hear his voice, 
ordinarily feeble, become clear and sonorous under the influence of the lofty 
ideas he is uttering, as he concludes : " Sir, public men and the people every- 
where must cease to undervalue the worth of moral excellence and virtue, and 
learn to consider that the want of these cannot be compensated by genius, 
however brilliant, by learning, however extensive, nor by any advantages, 
however fascinating and valuable in themselves, which either the bounty of 
nature, the power of industry, or tlie most accompli-hed education can 
bestow. In short, if we wish to maintain the free institutions of the country, 
if we wish to preserve purity in the government, if we wish to continue and 
perpetuate civil and political liberty, if we wish to uphold the character 
and honor of the country and give it a name surpassing every other name 
among the nations of the earth, we must remember and cons'antly act upon 
the great truth taught by Infallible Wisdom, that it is righteousness which 
exalteth a nation, ivhile sin is a reproach unto any people. We must remember 
that it is an axiom founded in the soundest philosophy, and verified by all 
authentic history, that as vice and immorality in private life invariably 
destroy individual character and usefulness, whatever intellectual endow- 
ments may accompany th.m, so, if favored and tolerated in public life, and 
among public men, they will inevitably infect and corrupt the general mass 
of the community, induce criminal insubordination to the laws, undermine 
the conservative and sustaining principles of the social compact, and ulti- 
mately lead to national dishonor, degradation, and ruin." 

Mr. Prentiss was one of the two senators belonging to his party who 
refused to sustain, and used all his influence against the passage of, the cele- 
brated Bankrupt Act of 1840. In a speech delivered in the Senate, in a gen- 
eral argument against the merits of the bill, he showed profound acquaintance 
with the Knglish system of common and statute law, and a comprehensive 
sagacity with respect to the results of the measure, should it be carried iuto 
operation. His speech on this occasion was said by Mr. Calhoun to have 
been the clearest and most unanswerable argument to which the latter had 
listened for many years on any debatable question. While confident that the 
provisions of the bill were unjust and likely to work mischief, " kindness to 
the few and cruelty to ttie many," he yet rested his objections to it princi- 



12 

"In 1841, vciy near tlie conclusion of his second terra in the Senate, 
he was appointee!, by univers.il consent, and with unqnalitied appro- 
bation, judge of the United States Court for the DistrioL of Vermont, 
to succeed Judge Paiiie, wlio liad deceased, lie went upon tlie bench, 
and remained there the rest of his hfe. 

pally upon its moral tendencies and influences. He considered it as aiming a 
direct blow at the indefeasible rights of property, which lie at the foundation 
of the social system, and tending to induce fraud and dishonesty in the com- 
munity. In his view, it seemed to legalize the breaking of contracts, and to 
destroy individual and public credit. A short experience of the law disclosed 
liis wis{|,ora and the soundness of his argumentt, and its failure to produce 
any beneficial results verified his prediction. It grew out of a false and one- 
sided philanthropy that overlooked moral distinctions :ind personal rights, 
and consequently had soon to be repealed. 

Mr. Prentiss, having lionored himself and his State for two successive 
terms of six years in the United States Senate, was nominated by the Presi- 
dent to the office of judge of the District Court of the United States for Ver- 
mont. The nomination was sent to the Senate on the 8th of April, 1842; and 
on the same day, immediately on its being received, the Senate went into 
executive session, and, without the usual reference of the subject to a com- 
mittee, confirmed the nomination by a resolution declarinii that they " unan- 
imoushj" advised and consented to the appointment. This circumstance 
attending his appointment was gratifying as it was unusual, and showed the 
impression that the character and abilities of Mr. Prentiss had made upon his 
associates. His resignation was communicated to the Senate three days 
subsequently to the nomination and appointment. The sentiments which 
were freely expressed on the floor of that body when his letter of resignation 
was read, are those with which he has equally inspired all who liave known 
him. It is said that senators of all parties vied with each other in expressing 
their opinions of his eminent fltness for the office, and their regrets that a 
man so pure and firm, of so much soundness of mind and views, of so much 
and such rare delicacy of conscientiousness, a man as necessary to the Senate 
as he wouli be useful on the bench, was to be removed from among them. 
The tone of the public journals on his retiring from the Senate was equally 
complimentary and just, and even party animosity never ventured to impugn 
the appointment. 

The discipline to which Judge Prentiss subjected himself from the com- 
mencement of his practice at the bar, the character of his studies and the 
manner and object with which he pursued them, would all inJicate that he 
would be able to discharge the public duties of his office to universal accept- 
ance. And such has been the case; and such and so high is the reputation 
he has attained in the office he at present occupies, that he has been fre- 
quently and publicly mentioned as a competent person for a seat on the bench 
of the Supreme Court of the United States. In two instances, when there has 
been a vacancy on that bench, many of his friends have strongly urged him to 
consent that his name might be presented for the nomination; but iu both 
instances he resisted the solicitation of his friends, and exerted his influence 
for another gentleman. He was advanced in years, and already worn with 



13 

" In those da,yp, Judge Nelson was the judge of the Supreme Court 
of the United Stiites who was assigned to this circuit. And uidike 
the judges of our day, who are either too busy or too little inc'iiied 
lo tiavel about the countiy and hold circuit courts, it used to be 
Judge Nelson's practice, and his pleasure, to come up into Vermont 

toil in the public service, and desired to pass the rest of his life in repose and 
quiet. The honors and emoluments of such an office wore not deemed an 
equivalent for its wearing and exhausting lanors. The duties of his pivsent 
office are not so onerous liut that he can discharge them with great fidelity, 
and the performance of them furnished an agreeable and heulthful excitement 
to his mind. 

Judge Prentiss has always tal^en a warm interest in the judicial institutions 
of his adopted State. While at the bar, he was earne.st and active in favor 
of every useful improvement in the judiciary system, which, as then exist- 
ing, was essentially defective. And wlien a member of the Legislature, in 
1824, he proposed and urgid, in concurrence with the other members of the 
judiciary committee, the act which was then passed, providing for an entire 
reorganization of the courts. In 1825, in the same position, he succeeded in 
defeating an attempt made to repeal it. The uevv system went into ojiera- 
tion, and has continued in exi-tence, commanding almost universal approba- 
tion and support, down to the present day. And he is still watchful of every 
movement calculated to disturb or impair the judicial institutious and charac- 
ter of the State. He has opposed, at every step, the encroachments of those 
popular influences and measures, which, by submit! ing the election of judi- 
cial oflicers directly to the people, render less certain and uniform the admin- 
istration of justice, strip the judiciary of its sauclity, and open it to the 
inroads of political excitement aud party animosity. 

The tendency of the duties aud studies of a high judicial station is to 
purify and elevate and strengthen the moral sense, and to inspire respect 
and reverence for those immu'able moral principles which are essential to the 
Avelfare of man and the peace of society. That tendency has been fully devel- 
oped in Judge Prentiss. Purity of life in every relation is of prime impor- 
tance in the character of a public man. Without it, genius, learning, wit, 
eloquence, and cultivation are worse than in vain. They add only to the 
length of the lever by which vice dissolves the fabric of individual character 
and social welfare. Aud we conceive it to be the highest eulogium we can 
bestow upon Mr. Prentiss to say that he is a pure man and a pure 
judge. 

A republican, he dislikes ultra-democracy, and reveres the Constitution, and 
loves the union of States whose permanence it guarantees A patriot and a 
statesman, he has no ambitious hopes for the nation, — no desires for its 
territorial extension and aggrandizement, — no dreams that it is the heaven- 
commissioned apostle of liberty aud democracy to the other nations of the 
earth He knows th^t *' patriotism is a necessary link in the golden chain of 
human affections and virtues," and turns aw:iy with indiguaut scorn from that 
false philosophy or mistaken religion which would persuade him that cosmop- 
olitism is uobler thau nationality, that philanthropy is greater than patriot- 
ism, aud the human race a sublimer object of love thau his own country and 



14 

once a 3'ear, at least, and sometimes oftener, and sit in the United 
States Court with Judge Prentiss. If there ever was a better court 
than that for ths dail}- administration of human justice, year in and 
3^ear out, in great matters and small, I do not know where it sat. 
The men were entirclv unlike. No two judges so eminent could have 
been less alike than thev were. Judge Nelson was not a great law- 
yer ; he was a very gooil one. He h;id a large judicial experience, 
natural judicial qualities, great practical sagacity, a strong sense of 
justice, and the mora! courage of a lion. He was prol>ably one of 
the best presiding m:igistrates that has sat upon the bench of any 
nisi prius court in our day. Not, I repeat, because he was a 
great lawyer, but because he was a great magistrate. He had a 
sway over the proceedings of his court that controlled its results 
for good ; there was a moral power and dignity about it that was 
salutary in its influence, not only on the business in hand, but upon 
everybody that came near it. It was felt by counsel, by juries, by 
witne-ses, by partii's. I used to think, as justice is depicted as bearing 
the scales and the sword, that Prentiss carried the scales, and Nelson 
the sword. Prentiss carried the scales, hung upon a dinmond pivot, 
fit to weigh the tenth part of a hair; so conscientious he was, so 
patient, so thoughtful, so considerate, so complfte in his knowledge 
of every principle and every detail of the law of the land. When he 
held up the scales, he not only weighed accurately, but everybody felt 
that he weighed accurately. But his very modesty, his distiust of 
himself, his fear lest he should go too far or too fast, deprived him to 
some extent of what might be called the courage of his judicial con- 
victions. Nelson, when tho}- sat together, always took care to assure 
himself from Ju-ige Prentiss that he wns right in his conclusions. 
They never diffred. It would have been very difficult to have 



his own people. The history of the past, which he reverences, not so much 
for what it is in itself as for the lessons that it teaches to the present, leads 
him to expect, that should our country ever become ttie propagandist of liberty 
among tlie nations, or seek to become the centre of light and freedom to all 
mankind, it would soon lose its independence and nationality. 

Judge Prentiss is still living in Montpelier, Vt. His life is quiet, simple, 
unostentatious. He has the respect and confidence of the community, and 
is a member, with his wife, of the Congregational Church in that place. To 
the profession of Christ! uiity he adds a hearty faith in its doctrines, and a 
cheering hope in its promises. That hope is more satisfying to his mind than 
any expectation of posthumous fame, — than any ceriaiuty that his name will 
be held in fragrant remembrance so long as tlie people of the State and land 
shall be taught to revere '• whatsoever things are true, and just, and honorable, 
and lovely, and of good report." — i?'/-om Sketches of JSiniueiU Americans, Liv- 
ingston's Law Itegister, 1852. 



15 

brought Judge Nelson to a dUlerent conclusion from what he was 
aware Judge Prentiss had arrived at. But the sword of justice in 
Nelson's h;ind was ' the sword of Ihe Lord and of Ciidoon.' And 
when a decision was reached, it was put in force without dela^' or 
further debate, and without recall. And so it was that the court 
became like the shadow of a great rock in a wear}' land. It carried 
with it an inevitable respect and confidence. It was a terror to the 
evil-doer and tiie prompt protection of the just.* 

"These desultory observations upon Judge Prentiss's life, in its 
various relations, mo}' perhaps have indicated suHiciently what I 
disire to convey, in regard to the qualities of his cliaracter and his 
intellect; he was a man of rare and fine powers, of complete attain- 
ments in jurisprudence, a student and a thinker all the days of his 
life ; conservative in all his opinions, conscientious to the last degree, 
thoughtful of otQers, a gentleman in grain, because he was born so, 
a Christian in the largest sense of the term, whose whole life was 
spent in the careful discharge of his duty, without a thought of him- 
self, his own aggraiidizement, or his own reputation. I saw him for 
the last time I ever saw him, on the bench of his court, towards the 
close of his life, perhaps at the last term he ever held. He was as 
charming to look at as a beautiful woman, old as he was. His hair 
was snow-white, his e3'es had a gentleness of expres-ion that no 
painter can do justice to ; his face carric d on every lini of it the 
impress of thought, of stud\% of culture, of complete and consum- 
mate attainment. His cheek had the color of youth. His figure 
was as erect and almost as slender as that of a joung man. His old- 
fashioned attire — the snowy ruffle, the white cravat, the black vel- 
vet waistcoat, and the blue coat with brass buttons — was complete 
in its neatness and elegance. And the graciousness of his presence, 
so gentle, so courteous, so dignified, so kindh-, was like a benediction 
to those who came into it. Happj' is the man to whom old age 
brings onl}' maturity' and not decay. It brought to him not the pre- 
monitions of weakness, of disease and dissolution, but only ripeness, 
— ripeness for a higher and a better world. It shone upon him like 
the light of the October sun on the sheaves of the ripened harvest. 

" Of his private and domestic life I forbear to speak. Historical 
societies have nothing to do with that. Some here are old enough to 

* An intimate and life-long friend of Judge Prentiss writes of liim under date 
of Sept. 1, 1883, as follows: "He was the most modest man I ever knew, a 
man of rarest excellences of character, in whom there was no guile. He 
was pure and simple as a child, yet, in the pursuit of what he believed to be 
right, strong as a giant, and in denunciation of wrong and oppression, ' ter- 
rible as an army with banners.' " 



16 

remember the admirable woman, his wife. Some may still remember 
his home, in a day when, as I have said before, the times were different 
from what they ar.i now. Steam had not put out the fire on the 
hearth. Ostentation had not paralj'zed hospitality. The houses 
swarmed with healtliy children. There were fewer books, but more 
study. There was less noise and more leisure. There was plainer 
living and better thinking. He had, as some knew, peculiarities — 
eccentricities thev might be called — in his personal conduct. Tiiey 
were nothing, probablv, but the outgrowth of a strong individuality, 
which consider.'ition for others restrained from having any other vent. 
His ways were exact; they were set; they were peculiar. When he 
came down from his chamber in the morning, and his family and his 
guests were in the house, he spoke to no one. It was understood that 
no one should speak to him. He passed through ihem as if in a 
vacant room, to his particular chair. He took down the Bible, and 
read a chapter; and he rose up, and offered a prayer. And then he 
went to the breakfast-table. After that, there was no courtesy 
more benignant and kindly than his. And that was an unvarying 
practice ; and every one who knew the ways of his household 
respected it. It was the flower of that old time reverence which dis- 
tinguished his whole life ; when he came forth in the morning, Ite 
spiike to God first. 

"It never seemed to me — I was too far away at the time of his fu- 
neral to be piesent — it never seemed tome that he was dead. It 
never seemed as if I should find his grave if I explored your ceme- 
tery. He seemed to illustrate how it w;is that in the old da^'s it came 
to be believed that some men departed this life without dying. He 
looked to me like a man who was onl^' waiting to hear the words, 
'Friend, come up higher'; like one who in due time would pass 
on before us, not through the valley of the shadow of death, 
appointed to all the living, but walking away from us, upward and 
onward, until, like the prophet of old, he walked with God and dis- 
appeared from our sight among the stars." 

At th(> October session of the District Court of the United States 
for the District of Vermont for 1857, the death of Judge Prentiss was 
announced by Hon. Henry E. Stonghton, district attorney, where- 
upon the Hon. Solomon Foot, as chairman of a committee for that 
purpose appointed, reported the following resolutions, which, after 
remarks by his Honor Judge Smalley, and by Mr. Foot, were ordered 
to be placed on the records of the court : — 

Whekeas, Tlie Hon. Samuel Prentiss, late judge of the District Court of 
the United States for tlie District of Vermont, having departed this life 
within tlie present year, and tlie members of tills bar, ami tlie ollicers of this 



^'^■■^'k^.:,...: 




Mrs. Samuel Prentiss. 



17 

court, entertaining the highest veneration for his memor}^ the most pro- 
found respect for his j^reat ability, learniiif;, experience, and upriiihtness as a 
judge, and cheri-^ljing for his many public and private virtues the most 
lively and aftc-ctionate recollection, therefore, 

Resolved, That his unifonnly unostentatious and gentlemanly deportment, 
his assiduous discharge of his official duties, his high sense of justice, his 
unbemling integrity, and the exMlted dignity and purity of his public and pri- 
vate character, furnish the highest evidence of his intrinsic worth and of 
his great personal merit. 

Resolved, That the district attorney, as chairman of this meeting of the 
bar, communicate to the family of the deceased a copy of these proceedings, 
with an assurance of the sincere condolence of the members of the bar, and 
of the ofticers of this court, on account of their great and irreparable 
bereavement. 

Resolved, That, in behalf of the bar and the officers of this court, the 
honorable the presiding judge thereof be, and he is hereby, i-espectfuUy 
requested to order the foregoing preamble and resolutions to be entered on 
the minutes of the court. 

Mr. Foot closed his remarks, after presenting and reading the 
resolutions, with the words, " And above all, and more than all. these 
moral and outward virtues were all tempered and beautified by the 
crowning graces of a Christian faith, of a Christian hope, and of a 
consistent Christian life. He knew and felt that 

' 'T is not the whole of life to live, 
Nor all of death to die,' 

and hence for long years, his life had been but a continuous and living 
ilUistration of the great accordant precept of all natural and revealed 
religion, that while the fear of man is the consummation of folly, 
' the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom.' He died, as he 
had lived, calral}', peacefully, triumphantly. 

'Like a shadow thrown, 
Softly and sweetly, from a passing cloud, 
Death fell upon him.' 

" His pathway to the tomb was all radiant with celestial light. For- 
tunate and happy will it be for us all if we shall improve the instruc- 
tive lesson which is taught us in the history of such a life, — in the 
history of such a death." 

Mrs. Lucretia Houghton Prentiss, eldest daughter of Edward 
and Sarah Smith Houghton, of Northfield, Mass., was born on the 
sixth da}' of March, 1786. At an early age she developed the germs 
of those rare excellences of character, and of those sweet Christian 
graces, that in so eminent a degree beautified and adorned her whole 
life, and won for her the esteem and love of all who had the pleasure 
2 



18 

of her acquaintance. Even at this day, one may find still prevailing 
in Noithdold many traditions of her beauty of person and her man- 
ifold giaces of characier and conduct. On a recent visit to that 
charraing country village, the writer was gratefully surprised to notice 
■with what warm affection the memory of Mrs. Prentiss w;is univer- 
sally held by the people, and with what earnestness they vied with 
each other in expressions of adraiiation of a character at once so 
beautiful and so lovely. Nearly every one had some pleasant story to 
tell of her early life. And one enthusiastic friend would not be satis- 
fied until she bad led us to the house, and into the very room, in 
which Mrs. Prentiss was married, and pointed out the paiticular spot 
on which she stood during the performance of the marriage ceremon}'. 

On the 3d of October, 1804, at her father's house in Northfield, 
she married Samuel Prentiss, then a young lawyer of Montpelier, Vt., 
and with him left the home of which she was the idol, and became, for 
the rest of her life, a resident of Montpelier. Here she lived, hon- 
ored and beloved l\y all, for more than fift}- years. Here, during all 
those 3-ears, she discharged with remarkable wisdom, fidelitj', and 
devotion the varied duties of a wife, mother, friend, and Christian. 

H6re she was blessed as the mother of twelve children, — eleven 
sons and one daughter, — two of whom, the daughter and one son, died 
in infancy ; the others, ten in number, reached manhood, and all, save 
one, adopted, as their father before them had done, the profession of 
the law. " In consequence of the close occupation of the time of her 
husband in his crowding legal engagements when at home, and his 
frequent and long-continued absences from home in the discharge of 
his professional or official duties, almost the whole care and manage- 
ment of his young and numerous famil}' devolved on her. And those 
who know what unceasing care and vigilance, and what blending of 
kindness, discretion, and firmness, are required to restiain and cheek, 
without loss of influence, and train up with the rightful moral guid- 
ance, a family of boys of active temperaments, of fertile intellects 
and ambitious dispiisitions, so that the}' all bo brought safely into 
manhood, will appreciate the delicacy and magnitude of her trust, and 
be ready to award her the just meed of praise for discharging it, as 
she confessedly did, with such unusual faithfulness and with such 
unusual success."* Notwithstanding the ever-pressing and care- 
increasing deraandsof domestic duties, they were all promptly and well 
performed ; nothing was forgotten, nothing slighted, omitted, or disre- 
garded. Nor was she in tlie least unmindful of social duties. She 
neglected neither the poor, the sick, nor the church of which she 

♦ Judge Thompson's " History of Montpelier," pp. 286, 287. 



19 

was an active and honored member, but was ever faithful in the 
performance of duty to each and all of thera. Especially to the 
poor her heart w:is always open and her h:\nd outstretclud in 
loving ministrations. " No case of distress or misfortune which 
was known to her," said the Rev. Dr. William H. Lord, in a 
sermon preached at the funeral of Mrs. Prentiss, " escaped her unos- 
tentatious charity, and her beneficence would take no refiisnl. By the 
strangers who partook of the hospitality of her husband's mansion 
she will long be remembered for gentle courtosy, for the refined sweet- 
ness and unaffected grace and dignity of her apjjcarance, and for the 
assiduous and earnest politeness with which she sought to anticipate 
every want and gratify every taste." 

Early in her married life Mrs. Prentiss made a public profession of 
.religion, and, with her husband, united witli the Congregational 
Church at Montpelier. From that day to the hour of her death the 
beauty and gentleness of her pure religious life shone with a con- 
stancy of lustre that dazzled not, yet that attracted all observers and 
won the homage of all hearts. Its fragrance, like tlie sweet perfume 
of flowers, gently diffused itself upon all who came within the sphere 
of its influence. " Superior to the ordinary vanities of life," said 
Dr. Lord, in the sermon just-quoted, " her chief adorning was notout- 
ward and worldly', but interior and heavenly, the ornament of a meek 
and quiet spirit. Occupying a position which she might have niade 
subservient to personal gratification and display, she i)referred the 
quiet discharge of her ordinary duties, and exhibited, in all her 
relations, the most entire unselfishness and generosity, ever ready to 
deny herself for the convenience and comfort of others. Of remark- 
able sweetness and gentleness of disposition, she was never thought- 
less of the feelings of others, nor rash nor unkind in her words or 
actions. Thoughtful and reflecting, nothing escaped her observation. 
She never forgot a favor. She never remembered an injury. Tiie 
one never escaped her acknowledgment and gratitude ; the other never 
stirred her spirit." So fully did she believe that " a soft answer 
turneth away wrath," that no instance is supposed to exist in which 
she gave expression to an uncharitable word or thought. Not many 
weeks after her death, the wriier wns told by Judge Prenti.'^s tiiat, in 
all his married life of more than fifty yenrs, he had nevir known or 
heard of an instance in which she had spoken an unkind word or had 
lost the perfect control of her temper. She was, indeed, an angel of 
love and mercy, whose mission was to do good on eai th, and, by a 
life of humble and blameless faith and piety, lead otiiers to the Lamb 
of God that taketh away the sins of the world. 

When her children had attained an age that placed them beyond 



20 

the necessity of a mother's care, leaving them in the custody of 
others, she accompanied h(r husband, so long as he remained in Ihe 
Senate, in his annual journeys to the city of Washington, whore she 
remained witli liim during the st-ssions of. Congress. Although she 
found many sources of enjoyment in tlie society and c'imate of Wash- 
ington, it was, nevertheless, in her own quiet home in the beautiful 
village of Montpelier, in the midst of her own family-, and surrounded 
by kind friends, that she found those pure delights and that sweet 
communion and syinpatli}' that she so much desired. Here she found 
sources of enjoyment that existed nowhere else. It was here she 
loved to live, and heie she wished to die. Here, in her own house- 
hold, she was a light to the feet, and a lamp to the patli, of all. 
Here she was the idol of all hearts. The early, frank, and cordial 
recognition by ht r husband of her rare combination of pure and 
elevated Christian character with menial ability of a high order, 
undoubtedly contributed in a great degree to establish in his mind 
that remarkable supremac}' of her influence that was apparent to all 
their intimate friends, and prepared the way for the exercise by 
her of that marvellous moral power with which she so modestly, 
3'et so effectively, supported and sustained him in all the walks of his 
public and private life. In this connection, and as tending to show, 
in some degree, at least, in what estimation this noble and self- 
sacrificing woman was held i\y her husband and children, I append, 
with permission, the following extract from a letter w'ritten not many 
months after the death of Mrs. Prentiss, b}' one of her sons to his 
father, and by him carefully preserved : — 

" Your professional career, and 3'our official character and position, 
have been, and are, such that you and 3'ours may well be proud of 
them. You have rendered the State and the country distinguished 
service for a long series of years ; and the ability, uprightness, patriot- 
ism, and devotion to the Constitution and the Union which have char- 
acterized the discharge of all 3-our public duties, have challenged the 
admiration of the considerate men of all parties. With this knowl- 
edge, and a consciousness that ' all the ends thou 'st aimed at have been 
thy country's, th}' God's, and truth's,' a review of your labors and 
services must pi-ove to you, in your declining years, a source of high 
satisfaction and enjoyment. To the guardian angel who, from 
youth's bright daj's to venerable years, walked hand in hand with 
you, sharing all ^'our joys and sorrows, encouraging by her wise and 
hopeful counsel, her persuasive gentleness, and sweet, approving smile, 
3"our onward and upward career, your character, position, reputation 
and fame — the results of your united labors and efforts — proved a 
source of just yet modest pride, and furnished an ever-recurring 



21 

occasion to h^r meek and gentle spirit for thankfulness to Him from 
whom all blessings flow. In ihem your children, too, who have so 
often listened with delight as she told, in her own simple and unpre- 
tending way, tlie story of j'our struggles and your triumphs, find 
abundant occasion for heartfelt pride and gratitude. Oh, how devoted 
as a wife, how dear and faithful as a mother ! How wise, how mild, how 
gentle, how indulgent : yet how complete her supremac}' ! It was so in 
life ; it was even so in death. Her svveet and gentle nature shrank 
not nierel}' from turmoil and strife, but even from public observation. 
But when called to struggle with the King of Terror?, she displa3-ed a 
Christian faith and heroism which not onl}' sustained and supported 
her in the otherwise unequal contest, but secured to her a Christian's 
triumph and a Christian's reward. Nobly, yet meekl}-, she fulfilled 
her mission on earth ! At peace with all, her pure and gentle spirit 
took its flight, and on angel wings soared to the bright and glorious 
mansions of the redeemed." 

Mrs. Prentiss bore all her labors and honors alike with meekness 
and humility. She was never elated with prosperity-, nor depressed if 
adversit}' confronted her. Patieiit and submissive, she never gave 
way to regrets or complaints at any of the allotments of life, but dis- 
p!a3'ed, in her whole history, in a very remarkable degree, those pas- 
sive graces of character which are the fruit both of true heroism and 
true Christianity. " She was a woman of the old times, and had in rare 
combination all those generous, exalted qualities of character ihat our 
imaginations are wont to attribute to the matrons of those by-gone 
and better days, in which the spirit of truth, sincerity, and simplicity, 
and the laws of courtesy and kindness, had not given place to tlie 
artificial tastes, superficial displays, and social rivaliies"of a later 
pi-riod. To these and other personal characteristics, idready men- 
tioned, were added remarkable self-possession, decision, and firmness, 
and a harmonious blending of menial and moral powers, thai gave 
grace, force, and dignity to a character consjHcuous alike for gentle- 
ness and for untiring moral energ}-. 

At all times and under all ciicumstances, whether of joy or sorrow, 
one unfailing Source of love and consolation was always open to her, 
and to which she never failed to appl}' with the loving faith and sim- 
plicity of a Utile child. So she lived, the light and morning star of 
her household, the joy of her husband and children, until the fifteenth 
day of June, 1855, when, surrounded by her husband and hei- nine sur- 
viving sons, at peace with all the world, with " malice towards none, 
with charity for all," and with a countenance radiant with faith in a 
Saviour's love, she sweetly fell asleep. A few hours before her 
death, and with a full consciousness that the end was very near, she 



22 

said to one of her sons that she had no more fear of death than she 
would have in anticipation of meeting her dearest earthly friend. 
Such, in brief, and feebly sketched, was the life, and such the death, 
of Mrs. Prentiss. 

Judge Thompson, in his " History of Montpelier," speaking of Mrs. 
Prentiss, writes as follows : " It would be difficult to say too much in 
praise of this rare woman. She was one of earth's angels. In iier 
domestic and social virtues ; in the industry that caused her to work 
wiUbigly with her hands, in the law of kindness that prompted her 
benevolence, and the wisdom that so judiciously and impartially dis- 
pensed it ; together with all the other of those clustered excellences 
that went to constitute the character of the model woman of the wise 
man, — in all these Mrs. Prentiss had scarce a peer among us, scarce 
a superior anywhere. As alread}^ intimated, she had done everything 
for her family. And she lived to see her husband become known as 
he 'sat among the elders of the land,' and her nine surviving sons, 
all of established characters, and presenting an aggregate of capacity 
and good repute unequalled perhaps by that of any other family in 
the State, and all, all praising her in their lives. These were her 
works, but not all her works. The heart works of the good neighbor, 
of the good and lowly Christian, and the hand works that looked to 
the benefit and elevation of society- at large, were by her all done, 
and all the better done for being performed so unobtrusively, so cheer- 
full}', and so unseifishl}'." 

In her own sphere, and measured by its possibilities and opportu- 
nities, she was unquestionably the peer of her husband. In all the 
elements of true womanhood ; in all the qualities of a noble wife and 
mother; in all tliat constitutes a perfect Christian chaiacter; iti all 
the graces that exalt and adorn that character ; in the meekness and 
gentleness of the "blessed" who "shall inherit the earth," — she 
was, in the community in which she lived, confessedly not onl}' with- 
out a superior, but with few, if an^s equals. Wholly unmindful of 
self, she lived onl}' to do good to others, and thus, with works of 
love and charity, to do her Master's will. Upon the occasion of her 
death a pall seemed to have fallen upon that community, and the 
people as mourners "went about the streets" sorrowing for the loss 
of a loved one who had gone, as she had lived, so quietl}' and so 
gently as to leave no ripple upon the surface of the placid wattis. 

" So fades a summer cloud away, 

So sinks the gale when storms are o'er; 
So gently shuts the eye of day, 
So dies a wave along the shore." 



L.of C. 



23 



" Oh, many a spirit walks the world unheeded, 
That, when its vail of sadness is laid down, 
Shall soar aloft with pinions unimpeded, 
Wearing its glory like a starry crown." 




JUDGE SAMUEL TKENTISS'S HOUSE, MONTPELIER, VT. 



Mr. and Mrs. Prentiss lie buried side by side on a beautiful mound 
overlooking the valle}' of the Winooski River, in Green Mount Cem- 
etery, just on the outskirts of the quiet village of Montpelier, '• loveli- 
est village of the plain." Over their graves stands a plain but beau- 
tiful and massive monument of granite, about twenty feet in height, 
on which are the following inscriptions : — 

" SAMUEL PRENTISS, 
BoKN March 31, 1782. Died January 15, 1857. 

Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the State of Vermont, 
Senator of the United States, 
Judge of the United States Court 
For the District of Vermont." 



"LUCRETIA HOUGHTON, 

WIFE or 

SAMUEL PRENTISS. 

Born March 16, 1786. Died June 15, 1855. 

A NOBLE Wife and Mother." 



JAN 16 1902 



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